


mistletoe

by coerulus



Series: zutara month 2016 [1]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Fluff, F/M, Mistletoe, Zutara Month, Zutara Month 2016, zutara month day 1
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-31
Updated: 2016-12-31
Packaged: 2018-09-13 15:37:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9130783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coerulus/pseuds/coerulus
Summary: "You literally saved the world, but you can't kiss a girl?""I guess not."zuko ღ katara. [christmas]





	

“Uh…what are you holding in your arms? That’s not white jade, is it?”

“No,” huffs Sokka, dumping the mass of plant in Zuko’s arms, “it’s _mistletoe_.”

“Mistletoe?”

“Yeah. You’ve never heard of it?” Sokka disappears into the supply closet and emerges with a ladder and a roll of zebra striped duct tape. “We hang it up every December at home. When two people are under the mistletoe, they have to kiss.”

“Have to?”

“Yup. No excuses.”

“Aren’t _we_ technically under the mistletoe right now?” Zuko points out, handing him the branches one at a time. “The last thing I want to do is make Suki mad.”

“No problem,” Sokka says as Suki magically comes into view. He leans down precariously to meet her lips with an obnoxiously loud _muah_ sound before he crashes to the ground in a heap. Zuko pulls him back up and hands him the rest of the mistletoe. “You could stop being a humbug like Toph and help Katara and me hang some up,” Sokka suggests, throwing the mistletoe berries to Momo.

“Sure,” Zuko says. Not like he has a choice, as Sokka promptly hands him half and pulls Suki in for another kiss.

“Sometimes, I’m glad I’m blind,” Toph shouts from the couch, brandishing her Braille copy of ‘How the Grinch Stole Christmas’.

“Hey everyone. How’s the mistletoe hanging coming along?” Aang asks, then takes notice of Sokka and Suki.

“A little too well,” Katara teases. Instead of her usual Water Tribe garb, she’s wearing an ultra-festive red, green, and white XL Christmas sweater pushed up to the elbows. More specifically, Zuko’s Christmas sweater. _So that’s why mine doesn’t fit all of a sudden, Zuko notes with amusement._

“Whose Christmas sweater is this, anyway?” Katara asks, gently swatting Zuko with her sweater paw. “I don’t remember mine going down to my knees. I must have grabbed the wrong one from the dryer.”

“It’s mine,” Zuko says, looking down. He scuffs the ground with one foot and simultaneously rubs the back of his neck. “You can keep it though. It uh…it’s uh…nice and warm.”

Katara looks at him. “Thanks. It really is.”

“You’re welcome.” He quickly shuffles away, making some excuse about hanging up more mistletoe, cheeks burning. He makes his way into the living room and stops to stare at the enormous Christmas tree, shaking his head.

“Hey,” Suki says, jogging up to Zuko.

“Hey. I see you and Sokka stopped uh…uh…”

She rolls her eyes. “It’s just a couple of kisses.”

“Looked like a lot more than a couple. Sokka looks like he has a grip like the unagi.”

She laughs and blushes. “A little. So what’s with you, Mr. Grinch? You’re not very into the holiday spirit this year.” Christmas carols play softly from the phone in her back pocket.

“Not much,” Zuko says, fidgeting with the hem of his robes.

“How come?”

“Dunno.”

“Maybe a kiss would make everything better,” Suki teases. “I wouldn’t advise you kiss Toph ‘cause you might really hurt yourself, but Katara is definitely there. Oh, and I could use a leg up. I can’t reach the archway here.”

Zuko’s cheeks turn brighter red and he buries his face in the armful of mistletoe.

“What’s the matter? You _like_ Katara, don’t you?”

“What? Of course I like her, she saved my life!” Zuko pushes a stool towards Suki and she tapes another sprig of mistletoe to the wall. “And we live together. I—I like all of you.”

“No, silly, not like that. You know what I mean.” Suki’s eyes crinkle in a mischievous grin, not unlike Sokka’s. “For the record, Katara has a very rigorous skincare routine. I think she uses the seaweed that grows at the South Pole or something. I’m sure she has very soft lips, if that’s what you’re afraid of.”

“I’m not afraid,” Zuko says, blushing harder. “I just…don’t really know if I can.”

“Zuko, you literally saved the world, but you can’t kiss a girl?”

“I guess not.”

Suki looks at him, then gestures for him to sit down in the armchair across from her. In the other room, Toph and Sokka are fighting for the last otter penguin shaped cookie. Apparently, Toph wins the battle of earth-water-air-fire, because there’s a loud _flick!_ and a louder yell of pain from Sokka.

“Kissing a girl isn’t that hard, Zuko. Just…when you find yourself under the mistletoe, just lean in and kiss her.” Suki shrugs, indicating the difficulty of the task.

“Isn’t that creepy?” Zuko counters.

“Everyone shouts ‘mistletoe’, so you’re kind of forced to kiss.”

“Not you and Sokka,” he teases.

“That’s _different_ ,” Suki says, blushing. “We’ve been a thing for a while. We all know you like Katara, Zuko.”

“Uh…you do?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh.”

“Take your Nike sweatshirt’s advice. Just do it,” Suki says brightly.

“Ugh,” he mumbles. “This is hard.”

“No, it’s not. We believe in you.” She claps him on the shoulder. “Whenever you’re ready. And Zuko?”

“Yeah?”

“You can’t get out of it. Sokka made sure to buy enough mistletoe to cover every surface you can kiss on.”

He groans.

…

“Katara?”

“Hey, Zuko. Hot chocolate?”

“Uh…sure. Yeah. Hot chocolate. That would…that would be great. Yeah. Thanks.”

Katara hops up on the counter with two empty cups and bends some chocolate into each one, then pats the space next to her. Zuko momentarily struggles with getting himself onto the counter, but gratefully accepts the drink. “Thanks.”

“No problem.”

“So…”

“So…”

“Can you pass the marshmallows?” he blurts. From behind him, Suki hits her head with her palm.

“Oh. Yeah, sure.” She hands him a bag of jumbo marshmallows.

“Thanks,” he says, dropping them in his cocoa and taking a sip. “This is…really good. You uh…you make really good hot chocolate.”

“Thanks.” Her fingers inch toward his, her small hand made even smaller by Zuko’s enormous sweater.

Zuko gulps and looks up, not wanting to look Katara in the eye. “Uh…”

“Mistletoe,” Suki says helpfully from out of nowhere, pushing the two together. Zuko whirls around and glares Suki, cheeks bright red.

“Don’t be such a humbug,” Katara teases, and presses a kiss to his cheek. “See? Not that bad, right?”

Zuko’s eyebrows shoot up in an extremely delayed reaction, and promptly drops his cup of hot chocolate.

“No,” he admits, “not really.” He can hear Toph yell faintly that she isn’t going to bend his cup back together. “That was…that was nice.” This time, he’s the one that leans in, and it’s nice. It’s more than nice. She tastes like hot chocolate and marshmallows and everything is so warm and soft when he kisses her and truth be told, he doesn’t really feel like stopping.

So he doesn’t.

“You can clean that up later, right?” Zuko whispers as he pulls her closer on the counter.

“Of course I can.”

“Good.”

 


End file.
